INS Discourages Appeals on Amnesty, Lawyers Claim

A group of public interest lawyers said Wednesday that they are alarmed by figures showing that only one-fourth of the immigrants who have been denied amnesty by federal officials are filing appeals in their cases.

U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials reported that as of May 7, 4,047 amnesty applicants in the agency’s Western Region (California, Nevada, Hawaii and Arizona) had received denial letters. Of that number, only 1,001 had filed appeals.

Lawyers representing the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles, an immigrants rights organization, claimed during a news conference that many illegal aliens are failing to file appeals because they do not understand English-language denial letters sent to them by the INS.

“These denial letters are three pages, all in English,” said Susan Alva, an attorney with the Public Counsel, an organization financed by the Los Angeles County and Beverly Hills Bar associations. “For many immigrants, they’re just about impossible to understand.”

Comprehension ‘Crucial’

Alva and other attorneys said that comprehension is crucial because immigrants have only 30 days to file an appeal once they have received their denial letters. The appeal costs $50 to file, and INS officials said that most appeals will take three to six months before a final decision is rendered by an immigration appeals board.

Federal officials responded that amnesty applicants, who filed their amnesty cases in English-language application forms, should have no trouble finding relatives or advisers to translate their denial letters.

“They’ve been treated fairly,” said William S. King Jr., director of immigration reform for the INS Western Region. “If they (amnesty applicants) have a problem with interpretation of their denials, they can get help from the same people who helped them file their applications.”

King said that after negotiating with immigrants rights advocates, INS Western Region officials agreed to insert a list in every denial letter giving the names of attorneys and organizations that would file appeals for applicants at no cost. But the INS balked at attempts by immigrant advocates to have the denial letter translated into other languages.

“There are some 170 languages spoken (among applicants in the Western Region),” said Joe Thomas, director of the INS regional processing facility in Laguna Niguel. “Which ones do you translate and which ones do you not translate?”

Thomas attributed the low rate of appeals to the fact that in many denial cases, immigrants realize that any appeals will end in failure. Thomas said that a large number of denials were issued because applicants were ineligible by law, disqualified by criminal records or ruled out because they had submitted fraudulent applications.

“They took their shot; why spend another $50 (for the appeals fee)?” he said.